Bangor Daily News, Aug. 23The federal education reform that is supposed to clarify whether schools are performing well offers so many interesting ways for good schools to fail that states will spend the next several years trying to explain why in the muddled matrix of test scores, graduation and participation rates so many schools are […]

POSTEWART, Northern Ireland – Not so long ago, when telephone companies were monopolies and menus were to be found at restaurants and not on recorded messages (“Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Spanish. Press 3 if you hate this system”), telephone operators were human beings who would offer directory assistance free of charge. Those […]

In case anyone forgot, the fearsome “weapons of mass destruction” remain hidden in Iraq.These were the causus belli, and whoever stashed them should teach his clandestine feats to American intelligence services and military forces. This assumes, of course, Hussein really had “weapons of mass destruction.”After all, war propaganda is often one teeny kernel of truth […]

AmeriCorps will survive in Maine, badly wounded but alive.Fears were running high during the political fight over the national volunteer initiative. State programs faced massive cuts, and predictions said that by the time all was said and done, Maine would have only 10 funded volunteers left. Turns out, the number will drop from 166 this […]

Deregulation turned trucks into rolling sweatshops. In days gone by, the general public looked upon truck drivers as “knights of the road.” Those big and burly men (women truck drivers were almost unheard of back then) were quick to stop and help a motorist who might appear stranded. Motorists, in turn, looked for the roadside […]

Space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven were the victims of scientific malfeasance, a failure to heed the lessons of the past and political doublespeak. So says a 248-page report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.The report is a stinging indictment of NASA, its culture and its management, including government officials responsible for the […]

Violence in prison doesn’t shock us. Violent people are placed together into violent surroundings, and the result – more violence.It’s easy to turn away, to avoid the truth, to believe people in jail, ultimately, get what they deserve. That’s wrong.John J. Geoghan, a former Catholic priest and convicted child molester, was murdered Saturday in a […]

From the day he took office, there has been little doubt that President Bush would run again. After all, the last elected president who didn’t seek a second term was Rutherford B. Hayes, a controversial figure because of the questionable circumstances in which he was elected in 1876.There also was controversy about the circumstances under […]

New air came in over the weekend, and it’s hard to remember how dreadful, weather-wise, Thursday and Friday were last week.Just as a reminder, it was hot, humid, sticky and hazy. Ground-level ozone, or smog, conspired with the elements to make it unhealthy to be outside on Friday. It was brutal.On that same day, when […]

If Fortune ever smiled on Alabama and the rest of the 50 states over the last 100 years, it smiled last Thursday.The Alabama Supreme Court ordered its Chief Justice, Roy Moore, to remove a marble stanchion bearing the Ten Commandments from the court building in Montgomery.Bravely, Moore refuses and we now have the ingredients of […]